Juno News - Pierre Poilievre Blasts Mark Carney

00:00:00.320 So, guys, I don't know if you saw that report about how easy it is, I guess, to get drugs in Canada online.

00:00:05.960 You don't have to go to the dark web or anything.

00:00:08.300 Alex, curious about you because you're always reporting on some pretty dark stuff about crime that you're covering.

00:00:14.860 So I'm wondering what kind of advertisements you might have seen online recently.

00:00:19.280 That's the weirdest thing. I haven't been getting any cocaine advertisements at all.

00:00:22.700 And I plug that word and many other drug words into my Google keyboard search all the time.

00:00:29.020 And so, yeah, I don't know how the algorithm works.

00:00:32.940 We were just talking about how it just sometimes recommends the craziest things.

00:00:38.960 And I was going to tell a story about it.

00:00:40.640 Before, I used to work at a bank and we were doing the Biggest Loser Challenge.

00:00:43.840 So it was this thing to figure out who could lose the most amount of weight.

00:00:46.800 I swear my phone must have been listening to me because I kept talking about it with my friends and my colleagues.

00:00:51.980 It was like, I got to lose weight quickly to win this challenge.

00:00:54.700 And then it started recommending laxatives.

00:00:56.520 Well, Lid, I got an interesting question for you, too, because obviously you just went down to Brazil from Ottawa.

00:01:03.640 I'm wondering if you saw any notable changes in the kind of ads you were seeing when you were in a different country there?

00:01:10.080 Funnily enough, what happens to me is when I'm scrolling on social media, I get content on Instagram, for example, on X in different languages because I follow people around the world that post and publish in different languages.

00:01:22.160 So sometimes without even traveling, I can get posts from different parts of the world depending on the language and its native root.

00:01:29.280 So if you're getting language from, I don't know, something in Spanish, you might be getting advertisements from South Central American companies or companies with branches in those parts of the world.

00:01:39.700 I have been getting different ads, of course, travel related ads, a lot of them, because, of course, I mean, I guess whenever you're moving around a lot, I think they're always looking for, to assume at least, that you're someone with a great appetite for travel.

00:01:52.020 I frankly think when it comes to the algorithm source, there's many more source of data points today than there used to be in the beginning of the .com versus in the start of the century, which essentially, you know, we used to always look at search history, number one, keystrokes, things that can be recorded very simply as you're typing into your Google search, your Bing, if you're unfortunate enough to be using that crap, or your Yahoo or anything else that would be an alternative.

00:02:17.400 Of course, now we have, you know, you have DuckDuckGo for your privacy hack, you have some alternatives to Google these days, but for now, Google search has always been the dominant since the beginning.

00:02:26.620 And if you're typing in keystrokes into Google, everything is, you know, well-recorded, well-stored, you know, even on Econito as well.

00:02:33.660 I mean, their servers, their databases is very much advanced and on the point for most of the part.

00:02:38.880 But now, when you have, you know, an Apple Watch or another smartwatch, you have smart home devices, you have a mobile device that goes with you everywhere you are, geolocation, audible points of data, your camera roll, your exchange of contacts between your device, other devices, your proximity to other people's devices, depending on if you have a shared contact.

00:03:02.320 I don't know if you guys ever use the airdrop feature on iPhones to send pictures between two people, but sometimes that requires proximity.

00:03:09.400 Again, whatever data point you have, whether it's where you are, who are you around, how you are interacting, I think there's just so much more sources.

00:03:18.060 So, frankly, there are times where I find, like, there's a lot of things that are just super relevant to me, and then sometimes things are not relevant at all.

00:03:24.840 But I think that's only because the data points are much more, have a much wider variable.

00:03:30.140 It's not just what I'm searching on my one device at home.

00:03:32.640 It's what I'm searching, what I'm doing, what I'm traveling on basically every device I own.

00:03:37.460 And now I think it's much more normal for all of us to have a phone, laptop, some sort of gaming, tablet, or entertainment device, television with smart features or a smart device plugged in.

00:03:46.880 There's just too much data points to give up that we, you know, we essentially have zero essence of privacy.

00:03:52.020 But I definitely do think the ads, for the most part, have been a bit more relevant than what my colleague Alex has been seeing recently.

00:03:58.760 Well, thankfully for our audience, Waleed, the first story we'll talk about today is relevant to everyone, I'd argue. 0.84

00:04:04.560 Of course, my name is Isaac Lamour, and I'm joined by my True North colleagues today, Waleed Tamtam and Alex Zoltan.

00:04:09.140 And let's hop right into this.

00:04:16.880 So, guys, we've seen, obviously, numerous floor crossings in the past weeks or months.

00:04:23.740 And Pierre Pelliev actually had an exclusive interview with Juno News on Wednesday.

00:04:28.180 So I'd urge everyone to go watch that.

00:04:30.320 That was with Mark Patron, where he blasted off on Carney for essentially trying to secure what would be an elected majority.

00:04:38.740 Because, as we all know, Carney was elected with a minority.

00:04:41.620 But now with several MPs crossing the floor to the Liberals, he's very close to securing that majority.

00:04:49.620 And obviously that would have nationwide consequences because assuming all the MPs voted in the Liberals' favour, they could pass anything they wanted without any opposition.

00:05:00.300 Even right now, I will say that while they don't technically have a majority, if they need one or two votes from MPs, they could realistically pass everything.

00:05:08.640 Because they can secure a vote from a block MP or NDP or a Green Party even could push them over the edge, right?

00:05:16.000 So it's not like this is going to make that big of a difference.

00:05:19.940 But still on paper, of course, having a majority government and even a major minority are two different things.

00:05:26.980 So, yeah, what have you guys thought about those floor crossings?

00:05:30.340 Specifically, I guess, you know, it's hard to even talk about electoral reform, if you want to call this this.

00:05:37.780 Because, I mean, the Liberals have been promising that they first came into power in 2015 with Trudeau.

00:05:41.960 They've been promising they'll make changes to the electoral systems and prove them.

00:05:45.240 But, of course, that never comes to fruition because it can only hurt them when it actually comes down to election time.

00:05:50.740 Well, I think, Isaac, there's a very interesting point that came up to me just recently.

00:05:56.660 And it's the Michael Ma story.

00:05:58.360 Because, of course, remember how the story was that Christophe Montt was upset with the fact that he wasn't given the deputy speaker role by the party.

00:06:06.180 He wasn't supported in that sense.

00:06:08.100 Of course, obviously, most people would consider that a promotion given the increased salary and responsibility.

00:06:13.780 But when it comes to Michael Ma, I think the news has come out quite cleanly and quite fast, actually, is now next week, Mark Cardi is heading to China.

00:06:23.060 For the first time, the Canadian Prime Minister will meet with Xi Jinping in China since almost a decade now.

00:06:31.000 Hopefully, of course, this is about resetting relations to China, opening up some trade avenues, and, of course, dealing with the canola tariff situation, which is of great interest to the Western provinces.

00:06:41.000 But, of course, Michael Ma will be joining on that trip.

00:06:44.180 Now, this is an interesting angle to the whole story of Michael Ma, from the fact that he was a former executive for a, essentially, Chinese company.

00:06:52.860 Then he became an MP for the Conservatives, running and riding on their behalf against a number of candidates who were compromised by CCP links that, essentially, helped the Conservatives flip the seat to blue.

00:07:09.500 And then you had the Jotay situation as well, which is exactly what the situation would be.

00:07:16.360 Mark in Muninville, a liberal candidate, was all about.

00:07:20.120 The fact that one of their candidates said that a bounties to be collected on Jotay's head.

00:07:24.500 Jotay is a well-known Hong Kong actor and dissident of the CCP.

00:07:28.680 He's against the CCP and is extending control of, authoritarian control of Hong Kong.

00:07:33.420 So, now this guy is getting his own promotion by being part of this delegation to China.

00:07:40.280 And, of course, this perception around him individually as someone who may be compromised by CCP interference makes all that more concerning that he's going to be hands-on in this relationship.

00:07:52.200 It's akin to the situation, if you guys remember Chandra Arya, who was once, I think, a three-time MP holding on Carney's seat.

00:08:00.480 I think a lot of people would be surprised that this guy was a three-time MP, given his lack of communication skills in either English and definitely not French.

00:08:08.700 But, yeah, this guy who was, you know, a well-known, you know, pro-Modi figure.

00:08:13.600 Again, one would consider him useful in setting, you know, India-Canada ties from one perspective.

00:08:20.220 But, again, from the ethical perspective, it's, you know, a question of dual loyalty or possibly a question of, you know, ethics as well.

00:08:30.560 If he is too embedded with the government of India for whatever capacity.

00:08:35.720 Same thing with Christopher Lund in Ukraine.

00:08:37.200 So I'm looking at Michael Ma in the same way in the sense of, you know, is this someone that is looking at Canadian tourists purely?

00:08:43.940 Is this someone that has his pockets in China?

00:08:47.580 Because, of course, his past and his political projections so far seem to spell at least credible rumors around it,

00:08:55.420 which is why you will see a lot of coverage from the likes of Sam Cooper and other anti-CCP activists covering Michael Ma.

00:09:01.360 I mean, these are the people that are most frustrated about Michael Ma, not from a partisan sense about crossing the floor,

00:09:05.740 but more importantly, his own personal links to the CCP and the Chinese influence project in Canada.

00:09:12.380 So I guess the floor cross situation for me, as bad as it is from a democratic angle, 0.85

00:09:18.400 I'm looking at it from a foreign interference angle because this effectively changed the results against democratic will,

00:09:24.340 perhaps on the will of a political agenda that we may not know of because of how discreet or foreign it may be.

00:09:32.040 Yeah, and Alex, Waleed touched briefly on Freeland there, but I'll ask you about her because, well, a few things.

00:09:38.540 First of all, of course, we know she took that position in Ukraine and eventually, after all the blowback, she got resigned her seat.

00:09:45.020 So that will result in a by-election.

00:09:46.680 I was just looking at the polling there in her writing, University of Rosedale,

00:09:50.300 and it's, I would argue, a guaranteed liberal win based on the current polling and NDP in second, not even the conservatives.

00:09:56.300 So that's not going to really change the dynamics in the House of Commons.

00:10:01.420 But another thing Poliev said in this interview with Juno was he was just so surprised that Freeland faced such backlash

00:10:10.280 when he said, Poliev did, that Carney's lists of conflicts of interests are much, much, much, much longer,

00:10:17.880 and he seems to have diplomatic immunity when it comes to that thing, those things.

00:10:22.340 So, yeah, what do you think about that, Alex, just the fact that we saw in the last few days Freeland get attacked so hard for her decision,

00:10:29.840 but Carney kind of seems to just, I guess, get away with it in that sense.

00:10:36.500 Yeah, I don't know if he does necessarily get away with it.

00:10:39.060 I mean, they call him conflict of interest Carney.

00:10:42.080 Like, people know that there's a lot of conflicts of interest there.

00:10:46.120 What I find interesting about the floor crossings and the Michael Ma thing,

00:10:48.980 I mean, if Michael Ma is indeed, you know, Beijing's man working in Ottawa on behalf of the Chinese government,

00:10:57.000 then that would mean that the conservatives ran a foreign agent.

00:11:00.360 I mean, like, if we're looking at this objectively, right, I mean, you'd have an issue no matter who was elected as prime minister.

00:11:07.240 I think the really interesting thing, though, broadly speaking about the floor crossings,

00:11:10.700 is that, you know, when Trudeau was prime minister and they had that supply and confidence agreement with the NDP,

00:11:16.480 they effectively had a majority, and it painted them as kind of dictators to some extent,

00:11:23.160 especially when they invoked the Emergencies Act, which was later deemed illegal.

00:11:27.000 And so I actually think that, like, a minority government under Carney was kind of convenient for them, right,

00:11:31.740 because it gave at least the air or the impression of them being accountable and not having all the cards.

00:11:39.220 So if they would become a majority, as the old saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility, right?

00:11:43.820 Like, people are going to be a lot more critical of this government.

00:11:46.520 It might be easier and faster to pass some of their legislation, but they're going to have that.

00:11:52.040 I think that they're going to have that same negative perception that the Trudeau government had going forward.

00:11:59.260 Yeah, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

00:12:02.820 Also, Canadians did not vote for a majority government, right?

00:12:05.800 Yeah, that's the biggest problem for me, especially because, as I've said time and time before,

00:12:12.240 and again on this show before, when we've spoken about this, you aren't really voting for the MP,

00:12:17.100 you're voting for the party.

00:12:18.840 So then when they cross the floor, it's like, that's clearly against the voters' will.

00:12:22.940 If they wanted the Conservative Party to govern the nation, which obviously didn't happen,

00:12:27.340 but also have that seat, and then now it's the Liberals, it's like, well, that's not democratic in any sense.

00:12:32.340 I believe I'll ask you quickly, because we spoke about this a bit, but, you know,

00:12:36.500 just the fact that these MPs are floor-crossing certainly would suggest that you could argue

00:12:43.300 their morals maybe aren't, they don't have Conservative morals, let's say,

00:12:46.500 if they're willing to cross the floor to the Liberals.

00:12:49.540 So what do you think about, I guess, the background checks and the due diligence

00:12:54.680 from the party's aspects, and especially because you were talking earlier about the data

00:12:58.400 and the technology we have accessible to us.

00:13:00.620 It's like, surely you could do enough research that you could find where someone truly stands

00:13:04.740 in their heart of hearts.

00:13:05.900 Do you think that parties just aren't doing enough when it comes down to selecting candidates there?

00:13:10.300 On the data points, I don't think you have to look through someone's lifetime search history

00:13:13.860 to discover their political views.

00:13:15.340 I think, frankly, it's about what their motivations for getting into politics are in the first place,

00:13:19.020 and that can be from both a partisan angle and as well an ethical angle as well.

00:13:23.120 I mean, I'm looking at the Senate for Business Interest,

00:13:25.420 where they actually have genuine ideas about how their community can be improved in Canada

00:13:29.620 from the riding to the national level to the provincial level as well.

00:13:33.840 I did look at, I mean, the Chris Nauterman situation is a different strange for Michael Ma,

00:13:38.180 in my personal opinion, because Michael Ma is a first-time candidate and a successful candidate

00:13:41.880 at that, flipping a riding from a Liberal to a Conservative.

00:13:45.960 So, again, and, of course, this was a riding with scandal-riddled, or two scandal-riddled MPs,

00:13:53.280 but overall were candidates for the Liberal Party, excuse me.

00:13:56.000 The one MP was Michael Ma eventually, who became a liberal himself.

00:13:58.520 So, three, that's a hot trick of liberal concerning figures in one riding only,

00:14:03.940 and within the same span of the election to eight months later with this full-costing news.

00:14:09.200 I did look at this critically in terms of the vetting process for the Conservative Party,

00:14:15.000 is, you know, what made Michael Ma an appropriate Conservative candidate?

00:14:18.720 And I mean to emphasize the word Conservative, because as a candidate, yeah, you know,

00:14:22.840 he has probably a decent career background, you know, not to critique his intellect here at all,

00:14:28.260 but, you know, certainly would be a smart individual, well-educated, can speak to the public enough.

00:14:33.220 From another side, and this is something that I personally reject and I don't appreciate very much,

00:14:38.340 seeing so often, as it is in our country, is the demographic plot.

00:14:42.960 Essentially, you know, he is of Chinese descent, therefore, he is someone who is put in a Chinese-rich riding, 0.97

00:14:49.880 a riding where his demographic may feel more connected for some sort of reason,

00:14:53.840 and decide to vote for him as a higher percentage than a non-Chinese candidate would.

00:14:58.820 So, again, that to me is something that I think is perhaps poisoning our politics in the country a bit,

00:15:05.260 because it takes away the local material focus, and it puts more focus on the demographic representation,

00:15:11.660 which then opens up an opportunity to exploit ethnic divisions, sectarian divisions.

00:15:18.060 You know, if you have a Hindu candidate, a Sikh candidate, a Chinese candidate, one specific riding,

00:15:23.600 that's, I mean, it seems like both parties are implementing this style.

00:15:27.000 I don't think it's like, you know, like, yeah, you are bringing some of those locals to the community,

00:15:31.440 but that community still has multiple elements.

00:15:34.560 It isn't just a pure Chinese neighborhood, Markham, Unionville.

00:15:37.340 I think there are people from all kinds of cultures as well, like Brampton,

00:15:41.000 but I guess the growth of mass migration, how it's changed our demographics,

00:15:45.200 and now it's applying this political pressure to restrict certain ridings to certain,

00:15:50.920 almost virtually restrict certain ridings to certain backgrounds in terms of who can be appropriate for candidacy for the major parties.

00:15:59.260 I think that is something that is concerning on its own,

00:16:02.200 which leaves open the door to what I would consider to be a half-assed candidate.

00:16:08.300 Oh, well, this guy seems to speak this second language or speak this mother tongue, 0.99

00:16:13.580 and looks this way, has this background, was born in this country.

00:16:17.460 Therefore, putting him in front of these people will get us to look to what I'm looking for.

00:16:22.440 I don't think it puts as much emphasis, focus, or respect towards political behavior, views, beliefs, etc.

00:16:28.800 So that opens the door, you know.

00:16:31.100 I guess the DEI candidates are ones that I would be more concerned about in terms of opportunism,

00:16:37.420 because really maybe getting to the politics in the first place may have been a question of opportunism as well.

00:16:42.180 Let's just take a look a bit more provincially.

00:16:44.040 I know none of us are in Ontario right now.

00:16:45.780 Waleed, you'll be going back there soon, but of course you're still in Brazil,

00:16:48.520 so we might not have all of the things we'd like to know about this.

00:16:52.140 But unsurprisingly, Doug Ford found himself again in the news,

00:16:56.600 this time being criticized by a private sector union for saying he was going to remove Crown Royal Whiskey from LCBO shelves next month.

00:17:06.460 And he was really going back and forth with them in a sense,

00:17:10.180 because he's saying they're moving jobs to Canada.

00:17:14.140 They're saying that that's not the, or it's a misrepresentation.

00:17:18.340 It's not the whole picture.

00:17:19.300 Of course, Ford was saying that they're going to move their production to Alabama.

00:17:24.340 And we've seen this from a lot of companies with the current tariff situation and the business climate in Canada, let's say,

00:17:32.860 where we're in Canada's, or sorry, companies can have cheaper production in the United States.

00:17:37.880 So they've been threatening to or even moving over there.

00:17:42.640 And yeah, no, so the union really was bashing Ford here.

00:17:45.800 But, well, personally, I don't even drink alcohol, so I'm kind of out of the loop.

00:17:50.600 Were you guys, did anything stand out to you from this story, Alex?

00:17:55.280 Well, I don't drink whiskey either.

00:17:56.860 It's too strong for me.

00:17:59.360 So, yeah, and I don't think, Waleed, you don't drink either, do you?

00:18:02.620 No, I don't.

00:18:03.260 But I'd like the choices out there in the marketplace for sure. 1.00

00:18:05.860 I mean, this is a stupid decision for my own means. 0.95

00:18:08.440 Yeah, Waleed, what do you think? 0.99

00:18:10.220 Because we obviously saw maybe a few months ago Ford pouring out that alcohol on the live stream there.

00:18:17.200 That got a lot of maybe even global airwaves.

00:18:19.740 But what do you think about the kind of the approach from Ford in regard to getting involved with this private industry, let's say?

00:18:25.940 I think it's silly, and I think it gives much more credibility to the argument of removing provincial-run liquor boards overall, frankly.

00:18:34.520 This is one more dent to the attempts by both Mark Carney in principle and other candidates in principle at the federal level that want to break down interprovincial trade barriers.

00:18:46.600 Again, a very noteworthy goal that I think would have great economic benefits should it be possible between the premiers to get to the table and get something done for once.

00:18:58.460 This particular example, you have workers working in manufacturing sites in Manitoba that are producing this product, essentially.

00:19:06.860 And the concern is you have one of their plants in Ontario that has moved off into the U.S. under terror pressures and other situations going on.

00:19:14.120 Of course, Ontario is not exactly the best place to be doing business at the moment, given a number of factors of wealth, some of which are under Doug Ford's own nose.

00:19:22.480 It remains an attack against the message we were hearing from Mark Carney all election long.

00:19:29.520 And, of course, Doug Ford being a champion of Mark Carney's Canada, you know, all-Canada, Team Canada approach.

00:19:36.140 That's the word I'm looking for, Team Canada.

00:19:37.940 They have a lot of slogans, by the way.

00:19:39.220 Team Canada strong, Team Canada, you know, everything, I mean, elbows up, the whole, you know, word salad of nonsense.

00:19:46.160 I just think this completely contradicts Doug Ford's previous goal.

00:19:49.480 This company does business in Manitoba, that is Canadian business.

00:19:52.520 It's not an Ontario business, for sure.

00:19:54.300 So, is Doug Ford now speaking or thinking under an Ontario first, an Ontario alone mindset?

00:20:01.120 Possibly, because that's probably where his votes will be going in the future.

00:20:04.520 I don't see much of a federal career for him in the short term.

00:20:08.240 So, I think he's just protecting his own political interests in Ontario.

00:20:11.520 Unfortunately, it seems like he remains heavily popular in that sense, at least among enough Ontarians and enough districts to give him, you know, the supermajority he needs for the rest of his career.

00:20:21.340 Yeah, interestingly, Willie, just when you were speaking there, you were kind of mirroring some of the talking points by the UFCW Canada national president, Barry Sawyer, who said, elbows up doesn't just mean elbows up for Ontario.

00:20:35.260 It means all Canadian workers need to stand together in solidarity.

00:20:38.140 So, yeah, if you see these premiers talking about breaking down interprovincial barriers and working together as provinces to be a stronger country, it's like, and then you're going against these companies that are producing in Canada, just because it's not in Ontario.

00:20:53.920 But, and then even for UFCW Canada, who is criticizing Ford there, they represent 250,000 workers nationwide.

00:21:00.980 So, this isn't some small union.

00:21:02.960 I think it's one of the bigger private sector unions.

00:21:05.060 In the restaurant and hospitality sector, they are, I think, the leading or largest union, or one of the largest, at least.

00:21:15.960 Weren't the Trump tariffs supposed to be decided upon in the Supreme Court today in the United States?

00:21:25.620 I don't know.

00:21:27.140 I believe that decision has been delayed on the IEPA tariffs.

00:21:33.180 I'm not sure why.

00:21:33.720 Interesting.

00:21:34.440 And that'll be interesting.

00:21:35.360 I don't know.

00:21:37.360 We'll see what happens, honestly.

00:21:40.200 See how it affects us in Canada.

00:21:42.720 But maybe moving over to your neck of the woods there, Alex, both physically, where you are, and also what you report on.

00:21:50.280 Well, we've seen a lot of controversy from a different premier this week, that being BC Premier David Eby and his drug decriminalization experiment, which is set to end at the end of this month.

00:22:03.660 So, we've seen people asking him at press conferences about that and maybe some pivots from Eby because he's, I don't know that he's even celebrating it at this point.

00:22:16.140 But obviously, this was a longly supported by members of his government, if not him himself, Alex.

00:22:23.140 So, what was happening with the decrim project this week there?

00:22:26.300 Yeah, so it was started as a three-year pilot project between the BC government and the federal government of Canada, specifically through the Health Canada Department.

00:22:37.000 It expires January 31st.

00:22:39.940 It's not exactly clear what we're going to be doing going forward, which is kind of concerning.

00:22:46.200 I mean, they only had three years to figure it out.

00:22:48.640 But, you know what, I think one of the frustrating things about David Eby's messaging on this is that he sometimes conflates the public drug use and the drug decriminalization policy.

00:22:59.160 So, just to give you some background, or when this policy was first introduced, one of the reasons that they didn't prohibit public drug use, it wasn't just simply that they forgot, it was because they wanted to reduce stigma.

00:23:10.980 And there actually was some method to the madness here.

00:23:14.200 I mean, I'm being generous.

00:23:16.180 But the idea is that if you're using drugs, particularly dangerous drugs like cocaine or fentanyl, the biggest risk to you overdosing and dying, sadly, is if you're using alone.

00:23:26.200 Because there's nobody around to naloxone you or whatever.

00:23:29.160 Obviously, the best way to not overdose on any of these drugs is to just not do them.

00:23:33.200 That would be my recommendation.

00:23:34.960 But basically, the government thought, well, you know, if people are doing fentanyl out in the street and they overdose and somebody can naloxone and bring them back to life quicker, kind of makes sense, I guess.

00:23:44.900 But it didn't.

00:23:45.820 It didn't work.

00:23:46.540 And then you just had people, you know, zonked out in tunnel slides at kids' playgrounds and people shooting heroin on the bus.

00:23:52.880 And it was just a complete disaster.

00:23:54.500 So, they got rid of that.

00:23:55.700 They said no more public drug use, but they kept the drug decriminalization policy in place.

00:24:00.860 A lot of people, even in B.C., hilariously enough, think that the drug decriminalization project ended a long time ago.

00:24:08.680 But it has not.

00:24:10.320 It ends on the 31st.

00:24:12.140 And, you know, it's also very strange, too, because we have basically had de facto drug decriminalization in Vancouver for a very long time.

00:24:20.720 Very few people are going to be charged for having a gram of cocaine on them in Vancouver.

00:24:25.820 I mean, if we did arrest everybody in the downtown east side for drug possession, the courtrooms would be full.

00:24:31.020 We wouldn't be able to prosecute any violent criminals.

00:24:33.740 I was going to say, if you went down these tastings, there has to be tons, literal tons, T-O-N-E-S, of drugs if you counted up all the people.

00:24:41.280 Yeah.

00:24:41.660 And I mean, and this also only covered you for two and a half grams.

00:24:44.360 Now, two and a half grams sounds like a tiny amount of drugs, but when it comes to fentanyl, that could potentially be hundreds or thousands of lethal doses, which is a whole other kettle of fish.

00:24:53.860 I can't believe that they lumped fentanyl in with cocaine.

00:24:56.700 Yeah.

00:24:56.880 Do you know the lethal dosage of fentanyl off the top of your head?

00:24:59.360 Yeah, it's two milligrams.

00:25:00.660 Milligrams.

00:25:01.200 Yeah.

00:25:01.780 So 2.5 grams is like you could overdose like 10,000 people or whatever it is.

00:25:06.960 Yeah.

00:25:07.260 Of course, it depends on the potency of the fentanyl as well as the tolerance of the user.

00:25:11.100 But, yeah, generally speaking, two and a half grams of fentanyl is an enormous amount.

00:25:16.220 Yeah.

00:25:17.980 Yeah.

00:25:18.520 Walid, I was going to say, I think a silver lining from what we've seen in B.C. when it comes to drugs, and maybe I'm biased because of Alberta, but I think other premiers have seen what's going on there, or especially over the last few years, and just have looked at the data and that this hasn't actually helped people in any notable way.

00:25:36.580 It's making public less safe.

00:25:37.840 It's making these drug addicts worse off.

00:25:40.220 So, of course, in Alberta, for example, we've gone with the opposite kind of approach.

00:25:45.280 Let's say the recovery first model, it's not – you're not trying to give people drugs.

00:25:49.100 You're actually trying to help them get off drugs.

00:25:51.280 So, Walid, do you think other provinces have taken note of kind of what happened in B.C., and do you think it may actually have a positive effect on the rest of the country because of how poorly their kind of drug situation is?

00:26:01.960 Well, given how unpopular it is in British Columbia, and British Columbia is still being a relatively progressive province across the country, if you're comparing it off to Alberta and Saskatchewan and even Manitoba, I think it has a nationally – a message that can transcend itself nationally.

00:26:17.660 Unfortunately for British Columbians and those that have seen loved ones fall victim to drug addiction, but this project in B.C. looks to me like a human lab experiment, essentially, you know, an experiment of rather progressive stupidity, I would argue, in the sense of trying to help people who are addicted to drugs continue their use in a much safer controlled environment. 0.86

00:26:44.820 But I don't see much of the control guardrails. 0.97

00:26:47.400 I see more of the public keeping it out there.

00:26:51.320 I think with a lot of problems that we have in our society, transparency is a benefit.

00:26:56.460 Knowing the problem is there definitely does generate an appetite.

00:27:00.020 So if I'm going to be a little bit morally perverted here, I would say I give credit to the NDP in B.C.

00:27:05.580 by overly opening up a marketplace to accessing drugs, especially drugs, you know, of strong, deadly, dangerous nature in places of public view, such as parks, even closer to schools,

00:27:21.580 has generated enough concern and frustration for the rest of society in B.C. and across Canada to take a much critical look at the issue of drugs in our society domestically, first and foremost.

00:27:31.820 And I think that appetite, from a political standpoint, could render possible future reforms that would mimic more of Alberta's less, you know, reckless model of get off drugs.

00:27:43.460 If you're going to make the decision to get clean, there could be some supports to help people get clean.

00:27:48.240 But you have to decide that.

00:27:49.760 We cannot support people deciding to continue down the path of degeneracy, of death, destruction, just zombifying themselves.

00:27:58.460 I'm sorry, but there are there are those that are simply lost that do not want this kind of help.

00:28:03.260 And, you know, I think it's a weakness of overly simplifying, sorry, overly sympathizable people.

00:28:11.060 That's kind of the issue we have from the cultural standpoint, I would say.

00:28:15.040 Well, on the stigma issue, too, obviously you run into the clear contradiction where we stigmatize smoking.

00:28:20.400 You know, like, I mean, we have these grotesque warning labels on cigarette packs, but we're not going to stigmatize people, you know, doing the fentanyl fold and, you know, the street.

00:28:31.840 It doesn't seem like you can have it both ways here.

00:28:34.600 No, and you can't smoke in the restaurant.

00:28:36.620 You can't smoke a few meters in front of a shopping mall, stores.

00:28:40.220 I mean, you know, I'm not a public health expert or anything, but I would imagine that that stigmatization of smoking has probably been pretty effective.

00:28:48.200 I mean, the smoking rate in Canada used to be in the double digits.

00:28:51.000 Now it's like six percent or something.

00:28:52.800 So it seems like you can't I don't understand how you can take one approach with fentanyl and then another approach with nicotine.

00:28:59.400 Absolutely, actually.

00:29:01.960 And of course, then, of course, the heavy regulation on nicotine or sorry, tobacco, alternative products that have like nicotine pouches and other things of that nature.

00:29:11.480 It seems very interesting because, you know, you have a lot less health consequences there in comparison to hard drugs in terms of deaths and illness.

00:29:18.620 Of course, I still don't endorse any sort of use of any tobacco products whatsoever.

00:29:22.800 I think people are going to do their best to stay healthy and live a long, healthy life.

00:29:26.600 But ultimately, given the market of options we have with tobacco, it's like, you know, and of course, the heavy restriction regulation, public information campaigns against products as well, the clear bias of health agencies against these products as well.

00:29:39.640 It's just it's amazing to me how we've taken a radically different approach.

00:29:45.040 But again, sometimes it takes a great period of suffering to generate the appetite to head in a different direction.

00:29:52.100 And I think now this is no longer a passive issue.

00:29:54.420 So, yeah, maybe this pilot project taught us that the answer to getting off drugs isn't more drugs.

00:30:00.140 But, Alex, I wanted to ask you because, of course, it ends on the 31st.

00:30:03.260 Yeah.

00:30:05.280 Considering it was a pilot project, do you expect them to kind of or what are the next steps that you think?

00:30:10.280 Like, are they just going to if they decide and they determine that it went poorly, boom, it's done and things are back to normal?

00:30:17.000 Or is it like, OK, this is what we learned and now we're going this direction?

00:30:22.000 I imagine that there will probably be a period of relative uncertainty.

00:30:26.220 Right.

00:30:26.620 Because ultimately, it's still up to a police officer's discretion whether or not they want to arrest somebody for possession of, you know, two and a half grams of drugs.

00:30:35.400 And I imagine in most instances, they probably won't.

00:30:38.400 Mm-hmm.

00:30:38.940 Right.

00:30:39.200 I mean, again, it's just I think that in Vancouver, especially, that we have long kind of just had a permissive attitude towards this type of activity.

00:30:47.140 So I don't think that's going to change too dramatically.

00:30:50.120 To be fair, when I was in high school, I felt the same way here in Alberta and Edmonton that more or less weed was decriminalized.

00:30:57.920 Like, if a cop found marijuana on you, they're not going to – they might take it from you.

00:31:03.180 But aside from that, like, you're not getting charges pressed against you.

00:31:06.660 You're not going to jail.

00:31:07.620 It was in the head, I think, decriminalized.

00:31:09.960 That was, of course, before the liberals actually made it legal.

00:31:13.620 Yeah.

00:31:13.820 And if you have 10 pounds of cocaine, I mean, they would charge you whether it was decriminalized or not because it only covered you for the two and a half grams.

00:31:21.020 Right.

00:31:21.360 So I don't think that there's going to be much change at all.

00:31:25.280 Speaking of not much change with the firearms here, we are still going down this road of what appears to be very ineffective fiscal responsibility, let's say,

00:31:39.900 because the liberals recently promised to give Quebec $12.4 million, despite, of course, the pilot project in Nova Scotia only confiscating 25 firearms.

00:31:55.280 And the initial calculation was that that costed – that project costed in Cape Breton there $7,000 per firearm.

00:32:02.600 But that was when the numbers were that they had collected 28 firearms.

00:32:06.960 So now that's gone down to 25.

00:32:08.080 So it's actually more than 7,000, assuming the calculations leveled out there.

00:32:13.700 But, yeah, no, the liberals are continuing somehow inexplicably to go down this route, especially because they extend the amnesty.

00:32:20.000 I mean, it absolutely makes no sense.

00:32:21.900 You know, at True North, we've covered the firearms in extreme depth and detail.

00:32:26.900 But I am still shaking my head.

00:32:29.440 I feel like we cover firearms and safe supply every week.

00:32:34.540 These two topics.

00:32:35.900 Is it just that – do you guys think it's just that the liberal MPs have enough power against Carney through this argument,

00:32:41.320 especially, like, for example, Natalie Provost, who are just so passionate about it.

00:32:44.540 It's like, if you don't do what we want, like, we'll resign, we'll cross the floor.

00:32:49.360 Like, is that why they're going down this route?

00:32:52.200 Even the public safety minister who's administering this said he wouldn't do it.

00:32:56.680 Like, he said on the record – well, not – he didn't know he was being recorded.

00:33:00.160 But he said that he would not have done this.

00:33:02.780 He would have gone a different direction.

00:33:03.740 Like, even he knows how bad it is.

00:33:05.800 And we've seen the numerous lies there, of course, that, for example, that it's always been voluntary.

00:33:11.400 But, of course, if you are caught with an illegal firearm based on the criminal code, you could face five years in prison.

00:33:16.720 So I don't know what's voluntary about that.

00:33:19.100 Yeah, I mean, we see this all the time with the liberals.

00:33:21.360 Like, the laws that are already on the books are already sufficient.

00:33:25.280 Like, why do we have to make these new laws and spend a whole bunch of money exploring these new programs that we already have laws designated and designed to deal with these problems?

00:33:36.040 I've seen another, I want to say, interesting point against this whole program we'll lead, which I'll ask you about, because we're seeing the liberals trying to disarm Canadians, albeit unsuccessfully with this program because of how ineffective it is.

00:33:49.480 But, in theory, they're trying to disarm Canadians, spend billions on doing that, while they're arming other nations, sending billions overseas, for example, to Ukraine to literally give them firearms.

00:33:58.580 We even offered firearms to them, like, oh, you could use our guns, but here we are disarming our own citizens.

00:34:03.060 So what do you think about that kind of paradox, I guess, if you would, Waleed?

00:34:07.780 Well, when I link the whole Ukraine issue, I wouldn't link it to the issue of gun buyback or the unconfiscation, to be more accurate with the term.

00:34:15.820 I would link Ukraine more to the fact that we have an underarm, underserved military from that perspective.

00:34:21.160 Actually, the military, military families, military veterans probably make up a pretty large, sizable demographic of legal and trained, responsible gun owners in the country.

00:34:31.180 Now, I don't endorse, again, freely distributed weapons around the country.

00:34:35.440 I think we're a bit of a different culture.

00:34:37.140 Definitely control and some public safety regulations, which we already do have, are great, and I'm thankful for them.

00:34:43.620 And I just don't think we have that necessity, as there perhaps is elsewhere, to take guns out of the hands of those that are best trained, capable, and responsible with those firearms.

00:34:57.280 And so I think, maybe linking it to the drug issue, but just from a political analysis standpoint, is when at the very least you have a sense of crisis, or at least the advertisement that there may be a crisis around an issue, you'll have an appetite.

00:35:13.260 Right. And frankly, I don't think there was a gun violence epidemic in Canada, but definitely there are, you know, a rise in crime involving violent crime, which should involve oftentimes on robbery or the use of firearms within the span of the criminal activity.

00:35:28.640 Of course, a lot of that is coming from illegal weapons, mostly illegal weapons coming from, obviously, the number one supplier of arms in the world, the United States, which we have a large undefended border with.

00:35:38.360 And that perhaps should be the better focus on security in terms of combating gun violence in the country.

00:35:43.220 It's kind of where the guns that we don't know are coming from that are not registered to anyone, that are not, you know, given to licensed gun owners and are being operated, you know, in a fashion that is inappropriate and dangerous to public safety.

00:35:57.820 I think the public safety minister has to look at the border before he looks at anywhere else, Quebec, Alberta, Nova Scotia.

00:36:04.520 Of course, we remember the tragedy that happened during COVID in Nova Scotia, which drove up a lot more talk on gun control.

00:36:11.220 And of course, there was the program was essentially pioneered and inspired from that time period.

00:36:16.480 And ever since then, there's been more push.

00:36:18.920 Of course, Natalie Provost herself is a, you know, a very strong advocate on that portfolio.

00:36:25.120 I think it's probably her main cause in her political life so far with Mark Carney's government as well right now.

00:36:31.960 So I think there is a political appetite in the Liberal Caucus, which has more seats in the House that can continue going down any path they feel appropriate.

00:36:41.500 But I just think this is lazy work.

00:36:43.200 It is easier to take guns, although the Liberal government has been unsuccessful even in that sense, from legal gun owners than it is from illegal gun owners, given the fact that the legal gun owners will comply at some stage with laws, provided that provincial governments are on board with the federal gun buyback program, which depends from province to province.

00:37:00.960 But ultimately, I just don't see any true political need for this.

00:37:06.700 I don't think people really want this.

00:37:09.100 Well, yeah.

00:37:09.880 And I think, like, to Isaac's point, I think it was Bill Blair who was, I believe, spearheaded this entire thing. 0.54

00:37:15.920 In response to the Nova Scotia tragedy, he was the one that floated the idea of taking these guns and transporting them to Ukraine, which is just ridiculous. 0.95

00:37:24.460 And also, I might add just another ridiculous thing. 0.85

00:37:28.320 If you were, I mean, God forbid, planning on going on a mass shooting spree, why would you voluntarily give up your guns to the government prior to doing it? 0.92

00:37:36.940 I mean, like, on its face, this entire idea is just completely absurd.

00:37:40.700 And then we also have this extortion issue.

00:37:43.380 So, clearly, gun violence is getting worse.

00:37:45.100 And what underpins a lot of this is this bizarre notion in Ottawa, as well as in academia, that increasing prison sentences is not a deterrent to crime.

00:37:55.220 This is why they're coming after the legal gun. 0.99

00:37:57.240 Rather than just saying, let's increase the mandatory minimum for owning an illegal gun and shooting somebody.

00:38:02.520 It's that they believe prisons are, what do they call it, criminogenic, and they believe that it just produces more criminals than it actually reduces.

00:38:12.200 But, of course, anybody with any sense of common sense knows that that's not the case.

00:38:16.820 The best way to get criminals off the streets is to put them in prisons and not just release them and hope that they magically get better one day.

00:38:25.460 Yeah, a few things I'll touch on.

00:38:26.960 You mentioned the border there, which reminded me of an article I broke from the budget,

00:38:31.040 which was that, of course, the Liberals are spending more this year on the gun confiscation program than they are on border security.

00:38:37.680 I mean, that alone is a shocking, shocking statement.

00:38:40.220 Shocking.

00:38:40.960 Especially when you consider the Liberals' misrepresentation of what this program will accomplish, which you alluded to there, Alex,

00:38:48.640 because they're always talking about solving gun violence.

00:38:50.540 This will do nothing.

00:38:51.460 We see the crimes being committed.

00:38:53.580 It's like the 99th percentile.

00:38:55.160 It's all illegally smuggled firearms.

00:38:57.120 Like, these sports shooters aren't going and doing violent gun crimes, unsurprisingly.

00:39:02.260 It's gang criminals who are getting their guns smuggled from the USA.

00:39:07.160 So, yeah, no.

00:39:08.160 And that's really, I guess, the Liberals' or any left-wing advocates, I'd argue, their main playbook, you know, it's misrepresenting the facts.

00:39:16.860 So this will not solve gun violence.

00:39:18.860 This will only hurt sports shooters.

00:39:21.480 I mean, what are we talking about here?

00:39:22.980 You know, it's Grandpa's shotgun out back in there.

00:39:25.020 And even the Liberals is calling them assault-style firearms.

00:39:27.600 We've talked with CEO of the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights time and again, Rog Galtaka.

00:39:32.920 He says there's no assault-style firearms in there.

00:39:35.020 Anyone who looks at the list, these are not assault-style firearms, obviously.

00:39:38.380 We're not talking about, like, M4s, you know. 1.00

00:39:41.380 Yeah, those are illegal, guys.

00:39:43.540 You don't say.

00:39:45.700 Anyways, I mean, I could go on and on about the firearm program, but I think we've covered it enough.

00:39:52.380 My name's Isaac Lammar again.

00:39:53.500 I'd like to thank my colleagues, Bleed, Tam Tam, and Alex Zoltan.

00:39:55.720 I remember everything you heard today was off the record.

00:39:57.880 You know, what I find insane is the gun by the confiscation program, it's a program where ultimately you're going to have RCMP officers engaging with people that are living in the most rural part of Saskatchewan, Alberta,

00:40:17.520 with their hunting rifle, their sport shooting rifle, their bolt-action rifle, whatever's legally owned, whatever's left in that catalog that's being cracked down on at this point,

00:40:27.420 because we already have banned many guns over the years.

00:40:30.900 I think you just have to think about the heat map.

00:40:34.840 The heat map, essentially, the map where you'll have a color coordination depending on whether you have high rates of crime committed with guns and where you have lower rates.

00:40:42.860 Looking at what those heat points, the red points, are probably going to be Toronto, the GTA area, Brampton, maybe Montreal.

00:40:52.540 Hamilton's a big one right now.

00:40:54.420 Yeah.

00:40:54.840 Where was that?

00:40:55.980 Hamilton.

00:40:57.040 Hamilton, exactly.

00:40:58.160 I mean, a lot of points in Ontario, we can agree on that for sure.

00:41:01.160 So, looking at those points…

00:41:02.840 Not rural Saskatchewan.

00:41:04.760 Yeah, look at those urban areas, suburbs, cities, the demographics, of course, as well.

00:41:10.700 I mean, you know, young people, probably people that are, you know, involved in, you know, criminal networks or gangs.

00:41:18.380 The Bishnoi group is probably one of those groups that are highlighted, for example, in Syria and Brampton.

00:41:23.940 You see all these cases of extortions targeting certain Southeast Asian communities.

00:41:29.460 It just boggles my mind that it seems like such a distraction.

00:41:34.200 You know, like, if you're spending any effort, money, and energy looking at rural Western Canada, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, people that are far away from urban areas, frankly, far away from the chaos of the cities, and then you're looking at the cities and what's going on over there, there's just a very different situation.

00:41:54.200 So, to be fair, Waleed, both of those provinces have been at the forefront of saying, we're not doing this.

00:41:58.580 We're not enforcing that.

00:41:59.760 This myth has gone as far as saying, I'm telling people not to do it.

00:42:02.380 Like, we will absolutely in no way, shape, or form be doing this.

00:42:04.780 Of course, I guess the RCMP could, in theory, come in and do that, but I don't see that actually taking place.

00:42:09.940 Because, of course, like we're talking about here, Cape Breton, Quebec, these are Eastern provinces.

00:42:13.500 But in the West, luckily, the provincial governments have stood up for their citizens and saying this is not happening.

00:42:18.880 Sure. But I still think, if it wasn't for a decentralized system, I still think the government would be emphasizing their control over the entire country.

00:42:28.300 I don't think they have a reason not to.

00:42:30.100 Politically speaking, they can do without the votes from Alberta and Saskatchewan, as they have in many elections in the recent history, and they can still form government of some sort.

00:42:37.980 I think in Quebec, there is greater popularity for gun control programs that they're advertising because, of course, again, they have enough seats, they have some political will,

00:42:46.100 they have the narrative coming from Nicole Polite Technique, which was, by the way, committed by an Algerian person.

00:42:54.120 I think a lot of people don't know that.

00:42:55.420 That was a new fact to me.

00:42:56.660 But I always thought about that shooting in terms of its perspective of misogyny, you know, like, you know, men and how men are violent towards women is one more example in history that, you know,

00:43:07.520 obviously there is a dark history in some spaces, but I think there's more, there's a greater story there in terms of the links of perhaps cultural differences as well.

00:43:17.440 I'm not looking for that conversation right now, but I think really Quebec has a great appetite.

00:43:22.200 So that's probably why right now we have a deal struggling with the province or the nation of Quebec, regardless of how you say that.

00:43:31.940 Well said, well said.

00:43:33.140 Well said, well said.

Juno News - January 11, 2026

Pierre Poilievre Blasts Mark Carney

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